Standalone CCTV DVR System

Advantages to purchasing a Standalone DVR CCTV system is simplicity and low cost. I have built many PC based CCTV systems and there is a great deal of technical understanding that goes into such. If you have time to study the available hardware for compatibility, software for features and reasonable cost, and all of the pitfalls of various incompatibilities then you might consider going with a PC solution. Looking at the standalone solution you can get a good H.264 4 camera DVR with network remote access for under $200 that is small, easy to conceal, and since the price is so low it is basically disposable if it ever craps out.

There are so many black box CCTV DVR Systems out there that range in quality and price. If you aren't careful you could easily end up with a piece of junk off of eBay that isn't worth the scrap metal making up the case. Alternatively, there are some really good deals out there, including eBay auctions, on systems that will give you most of what your PC system can do with a lot fewer headaches from configuration and maintenance.

Buyer's Guide: System Specification Must Haves

• Update: Many new units utilize H.265 which provides much better compression, however, video playback might not be possible on computers with old software. The latest VLC will playback H.265.
• H.264 / MPEG4 Standard Video - H.264 is what bluray uses, it offers a combination of best quality and uses minimal drive space.
• At least Half D1 Recording - 704 x 288 pixels beats the heck out of CIF when you are trying to identify a suspect.
• Standard SATA Harddrive - Make sure the harddrive is easily accessible for swapping out and is an industry standard interface.
• RJ45 Ethernet TCP/IP Network Capable - So it can jack into your office PC network for viewing cctv stills and video.

Questions to Ask Seller

updated for 2021

• Standard BNC analog connectors
• new 1080P, 3MP(12.5fps), 4MP(12.5fps), 5MP(12.5fps) CCTV Security Cameras and Compatible with all 1080P, 960P, 720P, TVI, AHD, CVI and Traditional Analog Cameras.
• What video format does it record in? (many new units are H.265 which is good)
• Selective footage delete capability (can delete specific amounts of video without deleting all of the video)
• Can it record sequential JPEG/image stills and video?
• Can it record video at at least Half D1 (NTSC)?
• Can the video be accessed via network share and easily played back on a PC?
• For the TCP/IP setup, can it be assigned a static network IP address of my choice?
• Does it support getting an address via DHCP?
• Will it accept a standard 3.5" PC SATA hard drive?
• Is there full control via remote access from a PC so it can be ran headless?
• USB Port to copy files or backup video footage to a thumb/flash drive?
• Is the motion detection sensitivity adjustable?
• When motion detect is active, the unit is recording, can it also be accessed remote with full functionality? (Simplex/Duplex/Triplex)
• If the remote interface is web browser accessible, is it Firefox compatible for viewing on Macintosh and Linux desktops? (many require MSIE specific plugins which is unacceptable)
• Does not require subscription based cloud storage (avoid subscription based)
• Can be accessed directly via IP address or port map for remote access (the traditional means of mapping via the router)

• Watch out for "Upgrade to Advanced Functions" or "Licensed Software not included" - You want to make sure you get a fully functional unit with full functional remote management without having to pay any additional costs for licensing software or getting software keys after your purchase - hidden costs.

General Information, Research, and Notes

This page is a research page with notes on the various units out there.

Many DVR's look the same, nameless black boxes sold by a manufacturer who may well go poof within a year. It can be very difficult to tell which ones are better than others. There is an absence of independent reviews on these units available online.

AverMedia DVR CCTV units are relatively well known and reliable. However, they will be priced higher than the black box systems on ebay.

The AverMedia 1304 SATA NET is a very good system. It has H.264 video encoding and 25fps on each camera. It offers full Internet with Smart Phone compatibility.

When looking at eBay auctions of DVR's be careful about how some information is presented. Be weary of stats such as 25fps per camera or 100fps recording. This means very little. What is important is to look at the number of frames per second and at what resolution. For example, the Avermedia is probably recording 25fps per channel but only at CIF. What is more important is what it will do at D1 resolution which is 4x the size and therefore 1/4 the frames per second.

Maximum recording resolution - D1 and also D1 advanced

There's no point in producing top quality images if the DVR is only going to record them at a low quality. There are 3 industry standard recording resolutions: (this section needs revised for NTSC resolutions instead of PAL)

• D1 is best quality and comprises a frame size of 704 x 576 pixels
• Half D1, also known as "Field" comprises a frame size of 704 x 288 pixels
• CIF is the lowest quality used and comprises a frame size of 352 x 288 pixels

Frames Per Second is less Important than you Think

• Target between 3 and 6 frames per second for CCTV use. This takes up a quarter of the space on your hard drive compared to 25 frames per second without costing much in footage quality.

CIF quality recordings are 1/4 the size of D1 recordings it makes the various claims somewhat ambiguous. As an example a 4 channel DVR which supposedly records at 100 frames per second will only really record at 6 frames per camera per second at D1.

External Resources

CCTV Forums

• CCTV Forum - https://www.cctvforum.com/

Vendors / Stores

Not endorsed, simply a list that we have discovered.

• CCTV Security Pros - https://www.cctvsecuritypros.com/
• CCTV Camera World - https://www.cctvcameraworld.com/